


Improvise

by MouseFantoms



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Forehead Touching, One Shot, Perfect Harmony being known about
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-15 06:02:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29554635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MouseFantoms/pseuds/MouseFantoms
Summary: Thinking she has a moment to herself, Julie plays a piano piece that's been in her head for ages. Luke would like to hear more but Julie is apprehensive since the piece she played is about him and her. However when the two are alone in her room, Julie knows that Luke is a very persistent boy and decides to show him the song called Perfect Harmony. He now knows the song’s existence. One could call it a confession even. The two cannot keep each other's eyes off of the other's lips. It becomes abundantly clear that something happened between them in her room when, during a rehearsal, Alex and Reggie notice the tension between their friends. Luke asks Reggie for help learning a song on the piano.
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina & Reggie Peters, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 3
Kudos: 60





	Improvise

Julie was disappointed when she got into the studio and saw it empty. Usually at least one of the boys would be there. Luke wasn’t even on the couch, his eyes glued to his journal. Maybe they were hanging out together doing ghost things… whatever that meant. She didn’t really know what to do with herself. She’d grown used to coming home and seeing them. It had become part of her routine. She could find something to do, they would probably be back anytime now anyway.

She found herself going to the piano. Perhaps the memories of her mom and her tugged her towards the instrument. Or maybe it was the influence of the boys in her life as they helped spark her passion in music again.

Spark.

Her fingers hovered over the keys, trying to remember the notes to her mom’s song, Wake Up. Her fingers remembered some of the melody, considering the notes were so close together to one another. She recalled when Alex had revealed that they heard her that day. How long had they listened? Why didn’t they say anything initially? Maybe they didn’t want to interrupt or maybe Luke was too amazed to do anything. That was also an option.

After Wake Up she found herself playing another melody. A gentle, flowing one. A smile appeared on her face remembering when it originally came to her.

She was dancing with Nick one second then Luke the next minute. She hadn’t meant to. It wasn’t her intention to accidentally daydream about dancing with her new crush instead of actually dancing with her old one. Her mind was foggy. The memory of how well Nick had danced was hard to recall. Luke however, he could dance. As to the actual dancing capibilties of real Luke she didn’t know. But dream Luke, Prince Luke rather with that hair and outfit choice, he could.

The way she remembered him giving her an approving nod to grab his hands, the way her body felt electrified once she did. They were able to physically touch, hold hands, be close to one another, hold each other. Being able to feel the warmth of each other (was normal Luke that warm too?), feeling the air from his mouth as he sang the rest of his part in her ear. After he had spun her away from him she was pulled back into reality realizing she was in Nick’s arms.

Right.

Actual Luke was a ghost and the passed minute they spend together didn’t happened. Of course he hadn’t held her close, embraced her, held her hands.

It wasn’t just the dance, it was the song they had sang together too. Their song.

The truth is finally breaking through

Two worlds collide when I’m with you

Our voices rise and soar so high

We come to life when we’re in

Perfect harmony, woah, woah

The image of him picking her up as she opened her arms to the sky played in her head. He lowered her down gently as they looked into each other’s eyes. Luke’s ‘did that really just happen?’ look of amazement and her smile of agreement. The little bounce on his heels that turned into him swaying their held hands together left and right.

When she let her hands off the keys that’s when she noticed the three ghosts in front of the piano, mouth’s a gap.

“Seriously?” She let out a laugh, not minding the company, “I can never get a moment to myself in here?”

“That was…” Alex tried to think of the words to say.

“Perfect.” The word fell out as Luke’s smile of amazement took hold.

She blinked. “Wait? Did you guys-”

“Every word.” Luke answered mesmerized.

“We didn’t want to interrupt.” Reggie simply put.

“You seemed… into the song.” Luke was still in astonishment.

Well this was not awkward at all.

“Yeah! You know how it is,” she gave a nervous laugh standing up from the bench, “getting lost in the music.”

His eyes suddenly shifted to above the keys. “You… there’s no sheet music.” He noticed. “You did that from memory?”

“That’s all I could remember.”

“There’s more?”

Oh no, he wanted to hear more. “I was just inspired one day, it’s nothing. Just leave it.”

“Nothing!?” He was offended by her words.

“Okay, you cannot just leave a song like that.” Alex had to interrupt.

“Yeah, it seems too special.” Reggie added.

“It was just a one time thing, like I said, leave it.” She went away from the bench and passed them heading to the door. Suddenly hanging with them didn’t seem like the priority since they had just heard that, especially Luke.

“But-”

“Luke,” she turned on her heels to face the boy who had began to walk towards her to catch her before she left, “leave it.” She finally said and out the door she went.

Luke looked longingly at the closed door.

“Let me guess,” Alex didn’t need to see his face to know, “you’re not going to leave it alone?”

“You try leaving alone a song like that.” Reggie could understand where Luke was coming from.

Without a look to the boys behind him or any word, he poofed out of the garage.

~~~

“Gah!” She exclaimed in response to seeing Luke sitting criss-cross on her bed.

“Julie…” he begged.

“I said to leave it.” She closed her bedroom door behind her.

“I know, I know but-”

She folded her arms frustrated he wasn’t letting it go.

“You said you had part of it.”

“Yeah.”

“…Do you have the rest?”

“…It’s not really your speed.”

“I know but-” she could tell he was trying to ask without directly asking, “Do you have the rest of the song?”

“…I do.” He saw her hesitant and look passed him. He turned his head and saw what she was looking at.

“I thought you didn’t write music anymore.” He knew the only time she would, would be with him or if they were finishing one of her mom’s songs.

“I used to.” She found herself actually going to her dream box, taking in off the shelf and opening it. It was the first peice of folded paper on top. “Guess that changed when you guys fell into my life.”

She knew Luke was being Luke and whenever he had a thought he couldn’t let it go. He wouldn’t stop pestering her until he got an answer. That was the reasoning she told herself at least for showing him the song. When he took the paper from her he unfolded it to read it. She put the box back on the shelf and sat next him on the edge of her bed as he was transfixed by the paper.

“There are two parts?” He asked for confirmation once she sat next to him.

“Yeah… a duet. Sorry if it’s a little messy.”

Reading the chrous over again he didn’t think before saying, “Why would you want to get this out of your head?” Assuming she wanted to not think about a song like this anymore.

She noted how he remembered a fact he had learned about her during the first day they had met. “It’s just a silly little-”

“Silly? ‘We’re heaven on earth, melody and words’ If by silly you mean genius than sure.”

She smiled at the compliment he gave. Finding herself looking at his profile as he read the song. She noticed his eyebrows knit once his eyes stopped reading.

“What’s the L mean?”

She scooted closer to him to look over his shoulder at the paper.

“Before the, ‘Step into my world, better sweet love story about a girl’” He clarified.

Before the start of those lyrics, on the line above there was a ‘L:’ written. Then a few lines below was a ‘J:’ written and then below the start of the next lyrics.

“L for…” she wasn’t good with coming up with things off the top of her head, “lyrics.”

He tilted his head at her, picking up on her hesitant answer.

“I was writing fast.” She excused. “I was in a haze. Wanted to just make it clear where the lyrics were by marking them.”

She could tell he wasn’t fully buying it but his head went back to the paper.

“You said it was a duet…” he trailed off as the gears in his head were turning. “There’s an L marked but also a J…” he looked to her to see if he was on the right track. “What’s the J mean then?”

She bit her lips, finding her bedsheets a better sight than him.

“Julie…” He was looking for an answer from her even though he caught her lie.

“Lyrics do start with an L!”

“Then what does the J mean?”

She sighed. “You know what it means.”

She pulled her head back up to the ceiling. Her eyes did eventually land back on him. “When I wrote it down I didn’t actually think anyone would see it, especially you of all people. I had to get the thought of the dance and the-”

“Dance?” He became even more interested.

She shook her head, shaking his question away. “And then it got worse when we performed Great and you wanted me to come over to you but I was taking Flynn’s advice on ignoring the beautiful dead eyes and I was doing really well until you did that guitar riff and I couldn’t resist.”

“That was the point.” He thought he sounded smooth then realized that probably wasn’t the best move as Julie was going through her ‘saying-whenever-comes-to-mind, doesn’t-think-about-it’ little quirk spiel to him.

“And then! You had the audacity to come over and sit at the piano with me! We did not practice that in rehearsal!”

“I was improvising!” He put his palms up in defense.

“Would you have ‘improvised’ the rest if you hadn’t poofed away?!”

“That was the plan!”

The two stopped their shouts of frustrations after his answer. He corrected himself realizing what he said.

“Unless,” his voice dropped, getting shy, “you would have wanted to… of course…”

She looked to the side, her voice dropping to match his. “…You would have just phased through anyway.”

His eyebrows raised, a stutter from nerves. “Would-would you have wanted me to improvise?”

She took the paper he held in his hand, dangling it in front of his eyes. “Does this answer your question?” She set it beside her.

He had a thought. “Maybe now things are different.”

“Hm?”

“We were able to hug you.”

“That…” she shoke her head, “maybe that was just a one time thing that night.”

He looked at her hand that was on the paper of lyrics then back at her. She knew where he was going.

“Luke…”

She knew beginning to scold wouldn’t do anything. When that boy had a thought, he acted on it. She didn’t find herself moving her hand away when he went for it. Perhaps, they were both curious. She felt the warmth that was present when they had hugged. The warmth she had felt when she cupped his face to really look at him. The tears of fear had turned to happiness in an instant when he had cupped her face as well, proving it was actually real life. Real life that he wasn’t gone. The only difference being this time he didn’t appear to be glowing, although he probably felt like he was.

She slipped her hand out from under his, hesitating a response, wanting to change the topic though, finding it hard to ignore what just happen. “Yeah I wrote a duet between you and I.” She noticed his hazel eyes looking into her’s after she looked away from the paper that his hand was still on. “So… what…?” She trailed off as her eyes flicked between his lips and eyes matching what he did.

They became conscious of how close they were to one another, inches from each other, how they could close the gap. They each waited for the other, waiting to know if it was okay, evident by how they couldn’t keep their eyes off each other.

“…Do you want me to improvise?” He asked, lowering his voice, not wanting to ruin the moment.

She leaned closer to show her approval, closing her eyes as she did. He had done the same as she. They waited for the feeling of warmth on their lips. How magically it must be. How gradifying it would be. They had an instant connection from the start. It was like they were at the piano together during Edge of Great expect this time he wouldn’t poof away. He would stay to close the space between them this time. He would-

“Julie?” A knock came at her door the same time as the question.

Their eyes shot open, seeing how they were just centimeters from each other. Luke had quickly gotten up at the same time she had looked away. Trying to distance themselves from the awkwardness.

Her bedroom door opened.

“Dad!” She looked over surprised.

“Were you…” His eyes looked around the room. “Talking just now?”

“Nope!” She let out. “You probably heard my laptop.”

He looked at the closed laptop. “…uh huh. Hey! While I have you, do you mind helping me chose some pictures to send to a client? You know your brother, his eyes aren’t as keen as your’s are with my photos.”

“Umm…” she looked to left, expecting to see Luke standing there but saw nothing. Of course he had poofed away. Why would he stay after they were just interrupted by her dad of all people? “Yeah sure.” She answered.

~~~

“Ok what was that?” Alex’s question came after Julie had exited the studio after a rehearsal.

Reggie and him immediately picked up on the obvious tension that was in the air between the two. After they had gotten done what they needed to, which was rather quick, as Julie went for the door the drummer and bassist shared a look to each other. It was great they didn’t even need to talk out loud, both instantly understood. Reggie poofed out once Julie exited. Good. He got the message.

“Ugh!” Luke groaned, ignoring Alex’s question. “I needed to ask him something.” He said in response to seeing Reggie poof out as he took his guitar off himself, setting it on it’s stand.

“What was that?” Alex repeated standing on his feet, holding his sticks in his hand.

“What was what?”

“That!” He gestured to the door that the ‘what’ of the question had just walked out of. “We can never get you two to stop making eyes at each other. And today you two were… normal.”

“Normal?”

“We just did a basic run through. You two didn’t do your Luke and Julie thing.”

“We have a thing?”

He was starting to get annoyed that he was acting like nothing was different. Maybe Reggie was having better luck.

“Gah!” Julie held up her hands as a reflex. “You guys have to seriously stop doing that!” She said in response to see the ghost in the red flannel at the top of the stairs when she turned to go up them.

“Sorry!” He immediately apologized. “I would’ve been in there,” he pointed to the door, her door, on his left, “but you have the ‘Stay out of my room’ rule.”

“At least two out of three of you understand that.” When she was halfway up the steps and made a gesture with her hand to her right, telling him it was ok to go into her room. If they were going to have a conversation it was probably best to do it in her room. The staircase probably wasn’t a good place to be having a conversation with a ghost that no one else could see.

“Speaking of all of us,” Reggie began once she closed the door behind her, “what happened at rehearsal today?”

She sighed. “You could tell?”

“It was hard not to.” He took a seat at the edge of her bed. “You two are always close together, sharing the mic all the time. But you weren’t this time.”

“Right, we weren’t.” He saw her look to the side at her floor, a look of hurt. She started to play with her thumbs. “It’s just…” She trailed off, he noticed her hesitation.

“You don’t have to tell,” he gave her the option, “it’s your guy’s business. Alex and I just don’t want to see our best friends… off. The way you two come up with these killer songs, the joy and passion both of you have when you perform.”

She gave a little smile.

“We just want to-”

“I know. Your hearts are in the right place like always. Or… well…?”

“We’re still figuring out the ghost thing. The teleportation is cool though, doesn’t tingle as much now.”

“Must have been a weird adjustment.”

He shrugged. “We’ve always had each other. Not much changed aside from being ghosts and having you now. Which now you and Luke have each other which again begs the question,” she let out a little laugh, finding it amusing he found a way to bring it up in again, “what happened?”

She continued to fidget with her fingers but went over to sit on the bed next to him.

~~~

Alex was ready to be done with Luke. That was until Reggie decided to poof in next to the blond.

“Find anything out?” He asked.

Reggie looked expectantly to Luke. “…yes.”

Luke flung his head to side. “How much did she tell you?”

From him staying quiet and looking down, he got the assumption that he knew most of the story.

“It just kind of happened.” He summed up recalling earlier. “I asked to see the song and we got caught up in the moment.” A smile came on his face.

“Ray interrupted…” Reggie continued, knowing majority of the rest of the story.

Alex looked between the light smiled Luke and Reggie, trying to read their expressions. Trying to add the pieces to the puzzle he didn’t have but the other two did.

“Oh.” he looked to Luke. “You mean you guys almost… you mean haven’t already?”

“Alex!” Luke protested.

He put his hands up in defense. “You two spend a lot of time in those song writing sessions.”

“That’s never happened.”

“Yet.” Reggie added.

He shook off his friend’s comment remembering the question he wanted to ask earlier. “You know paino…”

“Yes…” He was wondering where the question was going.

“Can you…” he saw Luke reach into his back pocket and pull out a piece of folded paper, “Can you read this?”

He took the paper from him, he read the paino chords, with the addition of Alex looking over his shoulder wanting to read the paper too.

“Yeah.”

He noticed him looking down, licking his lips before the question came. “Can you… teach me?”

He couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “You didn’t even have to ask.”

~~~

Out of all the things to come home to, hearing the piano being played was probably at the bottom of the list. She dropped her bag off inside then went out the back door to the garage. When she was further away, the music was faint, barely able to hear it. As she got closer, she recognized the tune. She carefully, parishly, opened the door to peek inside.

By the window, near the greenery, she saw Luke and Reggie behind the piano. A peice of paper was on top of the grand instrument, Luke’s fingers at the keys and Reggie supervising. Reggie was watching his fingers press on the keys and cause the beautiful sound. His wrist became relaxed switching from note to note, feeling the music. Until a nasty off-key note was in the equation from Luke slipping up and hitting the wrong key. From he frustrated sigh and Reggie’s sympathic look, this hadn’t been a first mess up.

“Maybe you should take a-”

“No,” he protested, “I can… I want to learn it.” He corrected looking to his right at Reggie.

“You will.” He was trying to be encouraging even though he didn’t like seeing him frustrated with himself. He saw him stare at the keys, as his fingers hovered over them, hesitatant to start again not wanting to mess up Julie’s beautiful notes she wrote. “Do you want me to leave?”

“What?!” He asked more upset than he intended, warming Reggie’s heart. “Why?!”

“You make a lot of progress on music when you’re alone.”

“I do?”

“The amount of bangers you’d come up with when we’d leave you alone.”

He didn’t realize it before but there was truth to his statement. When he had his nose in his journal with a pen in hand, he was in the zone.

“And,” he added raising an eyebrow, “the bangers you and Julie come up with when we leave you two alone together.”

Luke’s unenthused expression was his reaction to knowing what his friend was trying to allude to.

He asked after a moment, “…You two really haven’t yet?”

“Reggie! You’re just as bad as Alex.”

He put his palms up in defense. “You two just give off those vibes.”

“…Vibes?” His eyebrow raised in confusion.

“…I’m around Flynn and Julie too much.”

He gave a little smile thinking of Reggie hanging with the two girls.

“Maybe you’ll make some progress.” He said as a goodbye to his friend for the time being and poofed away.

Julie saw as he smiled to his right where Reggie was moments ago and his eyes went back to the keys. He tried to play the notes quick and messed up when he did so, he repeated trying to quicken the tempo, getting the same result every time. Until he took a breath, looked at the sheet of paper in front of him, and played. His wrists became loose again and his shoulders dropped. Perhaps it was the atmosphere in the room because she found herself coming out from behind the door and going inside in the studio, closing the door quietly, not wanting to interrupt. She could hear the part he played in her head when she closed her eyes:

You set me free

You and me together is more than chemistry

Love me as I am

I’ll hold your music here inside my hands

We say we’re friends, we play pretend

You’re more to me, we’re everything

Our voices rise and soar so high

We come to life when we’re

“In Perfect Harmony.” She found herself sing. Luke shot up from the piano bench, being startled and looked in the direction of the angelic voice he heard. “Sorry! I just got caught up in-”

“How long were you there for?” His eyes darted to look down then back up to her at the door.

“Long enough to know that Reggie was helping you.” She walked closer so they wouldn’t be having a conversation on the opposite ends of the room from one another.

“Yeah I,” the back of his neck suddenly itched, “asked if he could teach me.”

“You could have asked me too… you know.” She came around the right side of the piano, getting closer to him.

“I know.” He seemed to immediately say. “I just kind of wanted his help to learn this song and you weren’t supposed to know about me wanting to learn it but… well…”

She let out a laugh. “I’m sorry but it just sounded really nice. I had to investigate.”

“Nice?”

“Yeah!”

“…I wouldn’t really… call it…” He looked at the sheet of paper. “Would you… want to… maybe help me with one-”

“Yeah, of course.” She came around to sit on the bench as he sat back down again.

He pointed to a verse asking for her assistance on. She nodded and said that she noticed his main limitation was that he wanted to quicken the tempo. She played the first set of notes and paused, wanting him to replicate it.

“Don’t just play notes.” She responded when he played the correct note pattern. “Keep the tempo I give.”

She redid what she played, paused once more to wait for his reply with the instrument in front of them.

“I know you want to go fast but this isn’t that kind of song.”

“…What kind of song is it?” He asked knowing full well the answer.

He saw her hesitantation. “It will… it’ll ruin the moment if the tempo is changed.” When she looked at him, the piano lesson seemed to be forgotten.

There was a sense of déjà vu. The two looking at one other once again not being able to keep their eyes off the other. They were having a moment. A moment at the piano as he was trying to learn their song. Waiting, once again for the other to do something.

Luke spoke after some seconds, “Do you want me to improvise again?”

A smile came across her lips, finding his question amusing.

“Speaking of ruining the moment, is your dad around this time?”

She shook her head, smile still on. “No, he’s not.”

Her excitement reflected onto him as the same smile appeared on him.

It felt like they were feet away, but when they leaned into each other, meeting in the middle, they were just a mere centimeters away. The feeling was electric. They could feel the other’s smile through their lips. It wasn’t everyday this got to happen. It wasn’t everyday a moment like this was shared between the two people who had mutual crushes on each other. It wasn’t everyday time stopped when you were kissing the person you were melody and words for senseless. Time continued when the two came up to only touch foreheads with one another, eyes closed basking in the moment that was just shared.

“At least you can inform the guys that it’s happened now.” She opened her eyes to look to his.

He chuckled, realizing she had overheard him and Reggie earlier. He opened his eyes to meet hers, “Yeah, I guess I can.”

Time seemed to stop more the longer they were at that bench. Forehead’s touching, smiling giddy at one another. They should improvise more often. This was nice.


End file.
